In 2014, Republicans in the Senate blocked confirmation votes on 22 judicial nominations that they later voted unanimously to confirm, wasting days of legislative time. This year alone, the Senate has confirmed just six judges — the slowest pace in over 60 years.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is trying to prove that he can run a functional Senate, but it looks like obstructionism as usual. Republican Senators are not recommending nominees to President Obama for vacancies in their states. Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Charles Grassley, known for his obstructionism when he was in the minority, is slow-walking current nominees through his committee. And McConnell is not scheduling votes for nominees who do finally make it through Grassley’s committee.

Sign the petition from CREDO and Daily Kos to Republican Senators: Stop playing politics and get federal judges confirmed.

We depend on the federal courts to protect civil rights, women’s rights, voting rights, and the environment. But right now the courts can’t do their job because Senate Republicans are stalling, obstructing, and running down the clock until 2017, when they hope a Republican president will appoint more conservative judges.

Filling vacancies while President Obama is in office is our best chance of getting judges who will stand up for progressive values on the federal bench.

One Response to Grassley Playing Politics With Federal Judge Confirmations

So glad you posted this! I have been talking about this in some of my speeches and tweets over the past few months. Simply put: “Grassley DOESN’T Work!” He used his position as ranking member of Judiciary to nearly disembowel the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) by nearly creating enough vacancies to effectively end the agency. In fact, Grassley’s sinister intent on the NLRB was the final straw for then Majority Leader Harry Reid when he broke the filibuster rule on appointments. Now, as Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee his work is even more devastating. Not only has he stonewalled an overburden end judiciary and delayed justice for thousands, he worked to gut the effectiveness of the State Department. He did this by denying ratification votes to over 20 senior level career appointments. That would still be a problem. But just three days after the Paris ISIS attack, Grassley released his hold on the State Department appointments becausee he was advised that he was setting himself up for great political liability in time of war. Grassley’s shift to the extreme right is finally being noticed by the voters. I cannot count how many times in the past several months that voters have told me that it is time for him to go home. 2016 will be the year for that. The link below is a new bio my campaign just released. I hope that it helps people get acquainted with me.

Weekly Action Item

Stop Trump TV. Go to freepress.net, sign up for emails and complete the contact form to the FCC opposing the Sinclair-Tribune merger. Freepress has filed a Petition to Deny the merger with the FCC. You can still send a comment directly to the FCC. You can see the filing here.